The Death Knight of Acherus
by Lord Zidran
Summary: This is a story of the second Human Death Knight and his eventual fight against the one he used to call King, and who might forge a new future for both the Horde and the Alliance.
1. Chapter 1

Hey everyone this is my first story on this site, hope you like it.

-Zidran

**The Beginning**

Monster

That is what they called me, beast, abomination, a living horror, these were many of my names but that was years ago when I first became what I am, a Death Knight in service to the King of the scourge Arthas. It seems like a lifetime ago when I called him my king, when I was killed trying to defend a high elf family in Quell Thalas, when the claws of the ghoul cut me I did not falter, when their dark magic's blasted me across the clearing I did not stop, it was only when he came, when the cursed blade pierced my flesh did I finally fall but not before seeing the High elves gone, it was then that I knew I could look death in the face and smile and as I did all I felt was darkness.

I was not myself anymore, through some twisted means I lived but not as I was before, I had changed, I had become what history would remember me for many years, I was the second human death knight. My name is Dragar Bloodraven, a Champion of the scourge who later became their greatest enemy. This is my story.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 1: The Death knight**

Death

It is what I was created for, to bring endless suffering to the living, to hear their cries when my blade pierced their flesh and bones, it is what all of the living fear, what they dread and seek salvation from in their "light".

But death is only the beginning.

I remember it all, the fall of the elves, the massacre of the Blackrock orcs, the destruction of Dalaran and the return of the legion and their subsequent defeat at Hyjal. It was not the end however, Arthas brought us to Lordaeron to reclaim his kingdom, the betrayal of the Dreadlords and Sylvanas and our escape, but my King was losing his power, he was weakening our course soon found its way to Northrend where we assaulted the forces of both Illidan's Naga and Kael'thas's blood elves, nothing stopped us from reaching Icecrown not the Dragon Saphiron or ruins of the ancient Nerubian empire, we did not stop until Illidan laid in the freezing snow, dying.

The Lich king had merged with my Lord Arthas and as he sat upon his thrown on the summit of Icecrown I felt a…presence leave me, it was as if I could control my movements without his orders, it was a strange feeling but I shook it off, I was the only Death Knight in the Scourge forces, their best warrior and strategist, while my King preferred to muster up all of his forces for a full on assault and slaughter it was me and Kel'thuzad who made the battle a victory, a well-placed battalion of ghouls here and a few abominations marching on their flank and a battle could easily be won but the King had the final say and me and Kel'thuzad were more or less ignored until the battle came. Without the Lich King, the leadership of the scourge fell upon Kel'Thuzad who immediately made plans for the eastern Plaguelands, while Lordaeron had nearly been picked clean of all things living there were still some holdouts near the mountains in the east, plans were already being brought into fruition on his new citadel while I was charge with the creation of new Death Knights.

New armor was being made for me to show the authority of my station as well as a new sword was also being crafted from one of the rare red saronite deposits, the sword would later be known as Endbringer (as seen in World of Warcraft). The armor would be consisted of pure saronite, an ore that seems that only our most mindless of servants could mine. It would have on my right should pad the depiction of a skull with no jaw on the bottom, on the left would have a regular pauldron with three large spikes pointing outwards on it, the belt would feature another skull without its jaw, the same skull on both of my knees as well and the helm would resemble somewhat of a crown with two sharp "wings" on both side of it with the middle having a sharp arrow shape jutting up with a crystal found within the saronite mines.

When the armor was finished it was "sanctified" within Icecrown itself by Kel'thuzad and many of our necromancers giving it a deathly blue aura that sent shiver down their spines along with a purple cloak with the bottom shredded adding to the terrifying appeal (). Enchantments against the light were placed upon it to prevent me from succumbing to even the strongest of attacks from a paladin and an enchantment to prevent degradation on both my armor and blade, once they had both been completed I was a terror to behold.

While the Helm did cover my face entirely except my mouth you could still see a few of my pure white hair as it had become a few months after my transformation, and as I was not even a corpse for half an hour or so I was told I still looked like a perfectly healthy Human man, if you did not take into account my deathly pale skin and glowing blue eyes that is. Now it was time to train my King's new unholy warriors.

My first "Student" looked a veteran with his military cropped hair that was the color of both gray and silver combined with a beard on his jaw, he was found in the dead wilderness of the Plaguelands trying to survive in a cave to the south of Stratholme, unlucky for him a few ghouls and the necromancer master were nearby. For a full year I trained him in everything that he needed to know about being a Death Knight… but not everything that I knew. His prowess though lacking in any agility whatsoever he made up for in brute force, it was not long before his training was done and I called forth for more trainees but not to be trained by me, but by the student I had been training whose name is now remembered to have trained countless numbers of the scourge and brought fear into both enemies and allies, Instructor Razuvious.

/ Hey everyone it's Zidran and I hope you like this chapter cause there are a few more ideas in my head to use before we get to Acherus.

Apparently it does not like me copy and pasting the website address for the picture onto the story so I will just tell you were to go.

Type in "BG mu online servers" into Google it should show it as a forum page in a different language than English go into it, it should have a few other games listed including world of warcraft click it, once you are there click guides and one of the guides should say "Blood Death Knight tank guide cataclysm [ 4.0.6 ]" click that and it should show you the picture along with the forum, I am so sorry but copy and pasting the address and then saving the story just deletes the address all together and this is the only way I could think of to show you guys, if I am missing anything or if you still cant find the picture pleas tell me. Until next time guys, Merry Christmas!

-Zidran


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: The Citadel**

/3 years before WOTLK/

Naxxramas, a flying fortress that could bring the holiest of men to their knees just by walking its halls, it was the pinnacle of the scourge war machine for many years, however continues assault's by both the Argent Dawn and the various adventures had worn down on it over time but it continued to prevail, Kel'thuzads plans for its design were quite impressive but seemed as if it was just one huge protective box to keep all others away from him, this was only one of the "weird" things about Kel'thuzad that he could say not to mention his strange fascination with the cat Mr. Bigglesworth. Another thing that became more pronounced was my opinion, MY OPINION, I had never had one when Arthas commanded me and Kel'thuzad did not exert any of the control that he did, I was becoming more individualized, I was no longer the machine that I was built and crated for, so then what was I becoming? I did not understand anything anymore, how was I to lead without someone controlling me?! It just felt like I was…free. Could I be free in my mind, the Lich King has been quiet ever since he sat on his throne, while there was still control over all of the mindless beasts of the scourge there were no commands no order's. It was during these times that I began to have what I was later told by one of our necromancer's was flashbacks, slaughtering countless elves in the markets of Silvermoon, using my blood abilities to twist a Kirin tor mage and pop all of his blood vessels to quite literally make it rain blood, I kept seeing them all of the people that I have killed and the things I have done in the Name of Arthas, Lich King of the Scourge.

One part of me was glad, I had done my duty to my King and that was that but another part of me that felt like it was screaming was saying "Stop and remember who you are!" the voice was strange yet familiar, as if I had heard it in a bad dream, but regardless I was a warrior of the Scourge meant to bring the death of all live for the Lich King's glory. While these thoughts kept plaguing me many of Death Knight Trainees looked on in fear when I walked near them in the halls, when I saw myself I only saw a warrior, nothing else but when they see me they see a legend, a man who side by side of their King who brought untold destruction upon the world of the living, I only saw the warrior but they see differently they see the legend, Dragar Bloodraven, Champion of the Scourge.

"My Lord" I heard coming behind me, a human woman necromancer with unholy tattoos marking every inches of her face. "Master Kel'thuzad would like to speak to you my Lord in his main chamber" she said.

I wondered what the Lich needed of me, we have not spoken to each other in three months and the last time we had a real conversation was on battle strategies against the splinter group from the argent dawn calling themselves the Scarlet Crusade, the last I had heard of them was that they took over and occupied a large monastery complex just north east of what used to be Capital City.

"Very well, I will go and meet him then" I said she walked away leaving me on my trek to the center of Naxxramas where the teleported laid. As I was climbing the dais where the teleported was the cat Mr. Bigglesworth came scurrying by without a care in the world, it reminded me the last time something had happened to the cat, a trainee was swinging his axe at the dummy in the training yard when the cat passed under his feet without his notice, he the proceeded to step on the cat's tail when he tried one of the more complex maneuver's, ultimately Kel'thuzad was not pleased, while a trainee you can still feel pain unlike Razuvious and me and Kel'thuzad wanted to make it very painful so he cut out his eye balls and made him swallow them whole and made him fight the top 5 students in Razuvious class in a fight, if he won he would have his eye returned good as new thanks to the wondrous dark magic of necromancy, if he failed he would thrown into a Saphiron's pen …on feeding day. I was actually walking through that very same pit on the way to the main chamber, it seems Kel'thuzad liked having an undead dragon as a guard dog, I prefer to have my own Frost wyrm dragon as guard and companion so I should not judge too much. As I thought this I entered the chamber, quite possibly the coldest place within a thousand mile in any direction, I still could not decide if it served a purpose or he just like the cold this much.

"Ah Lord Bloodraven, it has been some time has it not?" Kel'thuzad said, "Indeed it has Master Kel'thuzad, quite some time I believe, what is it that you need of me and my knight's?" I replied.

"We have been having some resistance near the border or Quell' Thalas, we believe that it is just one group of elves seeing as they use hit and strike quite frequently and have killed many of our necromancers and destroyed many of our small out post's in the area from what we have found out is they are quite prepared for anything undead, seeing as our necromancers have failed to find and eradicate this group we require your services" Kel'thuzad said with a cringe, angry at his own necromancers for failing him in such a way.

"It shall be done, I will take a few of the new recruits that need some field work with a superior before we send them on their own" I said with a bow and promptly left the chamber thinking on which recruits that I should take with me.

/ 5hours later near the border of Quell' Thalas/

We had found their trail, anyone else might have missed the signs of the party but for a master tracker it was a simple thing, it is quite amazing what skills you can hone when you don't need to sleep, which is why he was the best of the best, he had been at this for a long time before Razuvious or any others, even Arthas himself who just focused on wholesale slaughter while charging at anything that moved. "I wonder if his cunning will change and improve with being merged with the Lich King for so long" I thought but was quickly brought back to reality by what I could hear in the distance…a pop of air as it escaped, a fire, and where there is a fire there is prey. Me and the two new recruits circled the camp and saw a band of four Blood Elves sitting around the fire just preparing their meal, easy pickings but before I could even begin to formulate a plan one of the recruits charged in with blood lust in his eye "Idiot" I thought, me and the other recruit quickly rushed in the camp in time to see "the idiot" thrown into a tree and was dazed, the second recruit was quickly disarmed and kicked into the ground also in a daze by what appeared to be the leader if the stance of the elf female was anything to go by, we locked blades her two swords and my great sword, it was nothing that I could not beat but she sure wasn't making it easy, it was quite obvious who would eventually win and her 3 compatriots were getting ready to battle me when she surprisingly brought her right leg into my chest sending me in the air while she backfliped in order to regain some ground and was quite surprised to see that I was not sprawled on the ground like the two others with me but that I actually landed perfectly on my feet as well.

It was then that I could finally get a good look at her and when I did, everything stopped for me, not because I was paralyzed with a poison or frozen by a mage but because of her face, the last time I had seen that face was the day I died, when I was created into what I am, when I protected that High Elf family from the scourge, she was the daughter of the High elf father that had me protect them.

Valeria Silversun, that was her name, though she was 19 at the time I recognised a fighting spirit, she had asked me many questions on fighting styles which her father deeply disapproved of. It was at that moment that everything change, the voice from before that told me to stop, it was my own voice from before… I was so shocked that when I uneasily stood up I dropped my sword on the ground surprising the elves while Valeria looked at me quizzically, it was with shaky hands that I removed my well known helm and for the first time in years, a living, breathing person saw my face.

At first they were surprised, now they were intrigued as to why I did that but it was her reaction that I noticed the most the confusion turning into bewilderment and then into complete shock… she recognized me.

"Dragar ?" she asked and I nodded but before either of us could speak the recruits were groaning and starting to awaken, "The recruits!" I inwardly cried, I had completely forgotten about them but what was I to do now, if they awaken and see the elves still alive they will attack no questions asked but as I looked into Valeria's face, saw the fear in her eyes, the desperation, that other part of me won over, I knew what I had to do, I grabbed my sword strode over and slit the throats of not the elves but of the recruits. To say that the elves were shocked would be an understatement, they obviously knew who I was, the armor and sword and the horror stories that followed them have obviously been told to many within both the Horde and Alliance, the fact that Valeria didn't know who I was until I showed her my face was a miracle in and of itself, they simply could not believe that a member of the scoured would kill his own men for the sake of anything living. Valeria looked at me and asked "why?" her compatriots listening in with rapt attention, "I didn't save you and your family all those years ago just to kill you now" I replied, my voice with it deathly sound and vibrations sent shivers down her spine and the other elves.

"I will tell them that you have been dealt with but you and your friends should run and not return for quite some time, I do not wish to see you, any of you in the scourge" I said, she and the others were still slack jawed as I picked up my helmet and put it upon my head but before I left I said "Goodbye Valeria" and with that walked off into the forest to call my dragon at a safe distance from them. Little did I know that my actions this night would change the world forever.

/Hey guys it's me again I had just finished Chapter 2 when this idea popped into my head and I just had to write it down, hopefully you all like it and please review this is my first story and I want some feedback to make this story better./

Until next time guys.

-Zidran


	4. Chapter 4

**/Hey guys I'm back from Christmas and most of my time since has been used on playing Assassins Creed 4 Black flag, it is by far the best of the series since AC2 and Brotherhood. So sorry I have not updated lately and this is the last chapter before we get into Acherus and do the DK story in WoW, so sit back relax and enjoy./**

**Chapter 4: The Awakening**

(1 month before the Death Knight starting zone story)

"Why do we even bother with this place" I said aloud

Me and the recently promoted Death Knight's, The Human Thassarian and the Blood Elf Koltira Deathweaver. We were currently walking the streets of the still burning city of Stratholme headed on our way to check a disturbance near the Scarlet bastion that was reported a few hours ago, seeing many undead and scourge alike dead in the streets justified the reports, it had been a stand-off between the two forces for a long time with the Scarlet Crusade desperately trying to hold their footing in the city and the scourge barley even caring. I was wondering what could have caused it all to cause a full blown fight when I saw a strange corpse, and when you practically live with corpses for your entire un-life you don't ever say it but this corpse looked, odd to him. Upon a closer look he saw it was an undead male, if the structure was to go by, wearing a tabard with the Undercity symbol on it.

Sylvanas. While in the scourge she was just another Banshee until she reposed her body only an hour after the battle of Silvermoon, during the first few weeks she was just another of the soldier's that fought for Arthas but as the weeks went by they both found out that with her bow and stealth abilities and his strategist mind and strength that they made a great team, it discouraged Arthas to no measure to see two o his best soldiers acting as a unit compared to the rest of his mindless horde but from what we could figure out it that without having full access to frostmourne's power since only the Lich King could wield it fully powered that when he reanimated both of us he did not have full control over how frostmourne brought us back there for giving a bit more of our minds and personality than the others that have been risen. She was my only friend within the scourge, and a great comrade in arms.

"I wonder if anyone has ever put friend and scourge in the same sentence before." I thought.

Her betrayal came as a complete shock to me, one day we were happily killing some paladins and the next she shot Arthas with a poisoned arrow. I never saw her again. It was not long after we first arrived in the Plaguelands to find a sub-faction of undead named the Forsaken who were freed from the Lich Kings control during the time when both he and Arthas's powers were failing, and who you might ask is leading these "rebels", why none other than Sylvanas Windrunner of course.

"I think we found the reason for the fight Grandmaster, I wonder what Sylvanas could want from the Crusade in here." Thassarian said

I sighed when he called me that, personally I don't like titles, they sound so pompous but Razuvious told me that I should have an official tittle being the first Death Knight, even though I told him I was the second and that Arthas was the first, he said quite boldly that since Arthas didn't die he was not a full Death Knight like I was, that threw me off and quickly after he said that my title was Grandmaster and that was that, even though everyone else is utterly terrified of me Razuvious knows me better than most seeing as I had trained him personally.

"Is it not obvious Thassarian, the Crusade simply does not care whether you are scourge or forsaken or even a part of the Alliance or Horde, they literally fight everyone that is not with them, who wouldn't want to kill them in turn?" Koltira snidely replied.

"Enough, our mission is to find what they came here for not idle talking" I ordered

"Yes Grandmaster" the both submissively replied

Our trek though the bastion was uneventful to say the least, the only thing we could find was corpses, and that is more or less a daily occurrence when you command an entire army of the undead. It was in the final room however that surprised us the most, I had expected the corpse of Saidan Dathrohan also known as the "Grand Crusader" and leader of the Crusade. What we found was very disturbing however, no corpse, but marks all over the room indicated a fierce fight and what laid in the center of it all left me speechless, the armored chest piece and bracers of a Dreadlord. Only one Dreadlord that the Forsaken would want dead came to mind, Balnazzar.

"So, the crusade was lead not by Saidan but by a Dreadlord, interesting" I mussed

Thassarian and Koltira did not know what to say, every Death Knight knew that the Dreadlords were originally the Lich Kings jailors and that there was a strict "kill on sight" order on them but the only thing they really knew about them was that they were very powerful and were more or less the best agents of the burning legion that were able to put on the guise of any mortal being in Azeroth making them the perfect spies.

"Koltira and Thassarian I want you both to go to Baron Rivendare and report our findings of a legion spy in the city and to lock down the city in search of any others, understood?"

"Yes Grandmaster" they said

"Off with you then" I said with a dismissive wave of my hand.

As soon as they left I immediately began my search of anything involving the legion in Saidan's quarters, however they did not look like they were used in months, and the dust layers were too thick.

"He must return to Nathrezim in the night" I thought

As I stepped into the ash covered air of Stratholme I summoned my Dragon and flew to a project of mine that had been in construction for some time, while Naxxramas was a good training ground we Death Knights needed a place to fortify and plan from, a central base of operations. A new Citadel had been made by my orders, and it had to be finished soon because there was just this feeling of, change. Something would happen soon, very soon all of us in the Scourge could feel it, and it was just a question of what it was.

While not as large as Naxxramas, it is the most fortified Citadel yet, with countless Death Knight's and random undead within it it also had a magical field that could completely encompass the fortress, while the shield was powered by many unholy runes and magical crystals it was also designed that with every attack both magical and physical that it would use those attacks to make it more powerful until it could be used as a weapon, it would full retract into its power source until it would suddenly explode into and Immense fire ball expanding outwards, annihilating anything that was not already undead, obviously it would not work so well on the armies of the Forsaken but that was only one of the many people that would eventually attack us, the other defences could easily protect us without shields such as the new canon design that was created by and Undead Gnome Death Knight that was an engineer before she was killed and put into service, her designs made the cannon become rapid fire, instead of the conventional single barrel for most cannons in the world ours would use four barrels that would spin and cause it to shoot a canon every second with devastating effect, the power source was vastly unique as we had the only supply and that being Death Knights, they would grab two rods that would immediately start to sap at their unholy power to use as ammunition, when she demonstrated it to me on a patrol of Scarlet Crusader's trying to make a nearby lumber work, suffice to say it only took ten seconds to reduce the patrol from 40 men into 7 who suffered a slow and painful death from the scorching burns that the cannons inflicted upon them. Needless to say I immediately put her in charge of building a variety of defences for the citadel, she told me that it would take some time for even the number of cannons that were needed for the citadel to be installed, I only replied with a minor grunt, as long as it gets done I didn't really care for how long it took.

Once I had arrived at the newly built Citadel did I finally get to see my designs become reality, it was missing something though, a name, something to be remembered, to be feared, a name came to my mind and that was that.

The new fortress of the scourge, the base of operations for all Death Knights around the world would be called Acherus: the Ebon Hold.

Only once I had chosen it name something took hold of me in my mind, it made me bend my knee in pain until it finally spoke, "I HAVE AWAKEND!"

The King, has returned.

A second force gripped my already pain filled mind, my defences were already obliterated from the Lich King's voice that I could not mentally defend myself against this intruder then all I saw was white.

I awoke in what appeared to be a white room, there was nothing but me my sword and armor, I tried to piece together what had happened. First the Lich King had awoken from his icy tomb and then nothing, was I truly dead?

"No you are not dead, but some days I wish we were."

I whipped around seeing what I immediately attributed to a mirage but no it was real. The build was the same, the armor and sword was holy armor used by many of the high ranking Paladins, his hair was as black as obsidian his eyes as green as the brightest grass blade and his skin had a slight tan but I could not mistake him for who he was for you cannot forget your own face, the face I wore when I lived.

"Hello me, I have been waiting for you" he said

"This is not possible, you are not real!" I screamed

"Oh but it is very real and do you want to know why?" He asked

"Well for starters we are in our mind, not yours not mine, ours. We are one and the same, life and death in one. Paladin and Death knight"

I could only stare at him with disbelieving eyes.

"Yes I know it sounds crazy but that is what we are. On the day that we died Arthas tried to create his first Death Knight to aid him in commanding the scourge, he was only new into his powers and did not understand how to properly use the sword Frostmourne, even when he was a Paladin he was arrogant and that only increased when he took up the blade, when he made us he believed that he could bind us to his will, he failed just as he failed with Sylvanas, while she believes that she was only able to leave him after he and the Lich King were weakened that is not so, she could have turned on him at any time just as you can."

I couldn't speak, I was free, I was always free, he had no control over me, and everything in my Un-life came flashing before me, the death, and the blood. So much blood.

"It was because of his arrogance over his power that he failed to extract your soul in the process, you have always had one, and it is why you fight so well with your new unholy powers and strength."

I knew he was right the evidence was right in front of me, me and Sylvanas retaining our personalities, letting Valeria live along with the other elves, it was all right in front of me the whole time, I had become a cold and uncaring monster during these years, a monster of horror stories.

Nothing made sense anymore, If I was free all of the time why did I kill all of those people, did I do it because I believed I was under his control or was it something else, but it does not matter anymore I realized, all of those deaths they most certainly my fault but they do not matter now, none of it does.

"Yes, now you see the truth, you have always been in control, I was unable to tell you because of our exceptional mental blockade, it wasn't until Arthas's return that I was able to break through to you. All of your un-life you have slaughtered in his name, killing everyone in your path because he told you too, he took away everything that made us human and turned us into a beast on a leash, while you still had a soul you were still under his yoke until now. You control what happens next not him, now choose, who stay's Dragar the beast or Dragar the man, the protector, the saviour, the champion!" He screamed

I had been nothing but a play thing.

A tool, a toy

A little puppet for Arthas to pull the strings.

It was all in front of me, my life my death all of it and then I saw the elves and Valeria, it was only on that day even when I started to have something akin to an identity but it was only when I spared her was when I felt. I felt, and yet I was undead but I understood it now, in the brief time that I knew her before I died she had become my friend. It was then that I remembered my code, a code my father had passed onto me on his deathbed. The code was to protect family and friends no matter the cost, always defend your home and people to your dying breath and to heal all other people's pain.

It was then that I think we both knew what my decision was, it felt like I was on a pre-set path, destiny if you could call it that, but I knew that this was the right choice, for all of my wrong doings this would be my first step into making it all right.

We both began walking towards each other, and before we collided there was a bright light.

**/Hey guys another chapter hope you like it and that its not too fast, the next chapter will have Acherus and I am going to try and not go with the story they give you after all you a little trainee when you start to become a full blown Death Knight and Dragar is the freaking Grandmaster, he is not going to be collecting like ten boar butts just to complete a quest for a guy you never care about, missions in this world are going to be fun not boring and if they do get boring please let me know, this is my first story after all. And on a side not if anyone has an awesome and terrifying undead dragon name and wants to see it in my story put it in your review and I will use it but if I get more than one name we will have a small contest for it./ **

**Hope you enjoyed the story, please review and as always have a good day and a Happy New Year!**

**- Zidran**


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